Written by

Shelley DuBois

The Tennessean

Vanderbilt University Medical Center announced that 275 positions were eliminated this week in another round of jobs cuts.

Previously, the medical center had confirmed only that several hundred people would be cut during this step toward reducing the medical center’s $3.3 billion operating budget by $250 million over the next two fiscal years.

Earlier this week, Vanderbilt sent letters to the mayor’s office and the governor’s office that said the medical center would eliminate up to 1,033 positions by the end of the year.

Vanderbilt is required to report these job cuts because it is legally considered a “mass layoff,” which employers must report under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN act.

Earlier this summer, the medical center let go of about 300 people, which does not count toward the 1,033 number.

In July, 250 people opted to retire early from Vanderbilt. That number, along with the latest reported number of 275, should count toward the total number of job cuts. It is still to be determined, though, exactly how many more positions will need to be cut, officials said.

The head of the medical center, Jeffrey Balser, reported the 275 job cuts via an internal blog, called Rounds, which is how he has been communicating about Vanderbilt’s restructuring.

“Some have been concerned that VUMC has been ‘too transparent’ about the need to reduce staffing,” Balser said in the blog post. “Those concerns remind me of the days when we didn’t tell patients what was actually wrong with them, to ‘spare them the pain.’ That misguided approach elevated the patient’s anxiety and, worse, destroyed trust.”

“By maintaining a sharp focus on contract optimization and supply and equipment standardization, we aim to capture approximately $70 million of the $250 million FY15 target in non-labor expense reduction,” Balser wrote in the blog post.

He also acknowledged that these cuts have created a tense atmosphere at the medical center.

“What we cannot do — and should not try to do — is attempt to minimize the sense of loss we feel as we experience friends and colleagues leaving VUMC. Our reactions are important expressions of our humanity.”